print
- Museum number
- 1917,1208.4630
- Title
- Object: First act of hostility
- Description
-
Starboard view of HM Brig Childers making sail off Brest, under fire from the batteries. 1815
Etching
- Production date
- 1815
- Dimensions
-
Height: 286 millimetres
-
Width: 365 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- For an account of the action see 'Naval Records' 1917-12-8-4632,4633, pp.3,4
Pieter van der Merwe (email Dec 2021): 'On 2 January 1793 HM brig 'Childers' (14 guns), under Commander Robert Barlow, was on patrol off Brest but in calm conditions drifted towards one of the forts defending the harbour entrance. The French opened fire and two other of the forts joined in: only one of 48 shots hit the ship but shattered, doing no damage and no-one was hurt, before a breeze allowed 'Childers' to get away. Barlow reached London to report on the 11th and in the deteriorating conditions with Revolutionary France, it was regarded as a political affront by Pitt the Younger's government. His enemies accused him of deliberately provoking the French but, though the incident itself was minor, it helped justify Britain's declaration of war with France on 1 February, after the execution of Louis XVI in Paris on 21 January. This print, published just before Napoleon's escape from Elba in 1815, looks back to how the wars of 1793-1815 started. Pocock's original drawing for it is one of two versions (one rather damaged) in the National Maritime Museum.'
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: French Revolutionary Wars 1792 - 1802
- Acquisition date
- 1917
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1917,1208.4630